MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - The gas sector should not be used as an instrument for sanctions or the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, European Union Energy Minister Guenther Oettinger said Friday.
“I have always said that even in the situation of the crisis, the gas sector should not be used as an instrument for sanctions or the escalation [of the conflict], this principle still stands today,” Oettinger said.
He added that the bloc's current goal was to maintain relations between Russia and Ukraine and Ukraine with the European Union.
Russian gas giant Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the company may renew deliveries to Ukraine but Kiev “must pay its arrears for 2013 at the amount of $1.45 billion, partially pay its debt that accumulated for deliveries in April-May and the first half of June” and make a prepayment for future deliveries.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Oettinger expressed their concern over the gas situation in Ukraine as winter approached. Novak said that Ukraine would need to pump around 10 billion cubic meters of gas into its underground storage facilities in order to make it through winter.
“It’s obvious that in order to provide the full balance of Ukraine during the winter period, besides pumping another additional 10 billion cubic meters of gas into its underground gas storage facilities for the last couple of months and for the current deliveries [to the EU] during the winter period, gas will have to be purchased from Gazprom,” Novak said.
Trilateral talks on gas issues took place between April and June to no avail. The Ukrainian government insisted on a significant discount for the price of Russian gas but suggested that Moscow price reduction did not satisfy Kiev, which also refused to clear its debt of more than $5 billion.
Gazprom switched to a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine in mid-June. The next round of talks on energy issues with the participation of the energy ministers of Ukraine, Russia and the European Union is expected to take place on September 6.
